A high school in Clovis, New Mexico has
banned all extra-curricular clubs from meeting during school hours or
using school resources to meet after a gay club was formed.
The Clovis school board voted in favor
of the change at a Tuesday night meeting.
The American Civil Liberties Union of
New Mexico has called on school officials to reconsider.
“Non-curricular activities are a
vital part of any educational program and provide students with
enriching and rewarding experiences,” ACLU
of New Mexico staff attorney Alexandra Freedman Smith wrote in a
letter to the board. “At Clovis High School, you have
non-curricular service clubs, religious clubs, a chess club, and
other similarly engaging groups. To simply discontinue these clubs
would deprive all students of a rich and diverse set of activities to
engage in outside of class. Eliminating these clubs would
doubtlessly diminish the vibrancy of the high school community in
Clovis.”
School officials have denied the charge
that it acted to thwart the formation of a gay-straight alliance
club, saying the timing was coincidental. Such clubs are meant to
create a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and
questioning students.
“This sort of tactic has been used in
the past by school districts to discourage gay-straight clubs from
forming,” Micah McCoy of the ACLU of New Mexico said. “A lot of
alarm bells went off when we saw this.”